NEW YORK (AP) — NBC has picked its Peter Pan: high-flying “Girls” star Allison Williams.
The network announced Wednesday that Williams will play the boy who refused to grow up in NBC’s new staging of “Peter Pan Live!” The live telecast of this musical classic will air Dec. 4.
The 26-year-old actress-comedian plays Marnie Michaels on HBO’s comedy “Girls,” for which she has recorded several songs. She is the daughter of NBC News anchor Brian Williams and has also appeared on “The Mindy Project” and “The League.”
NBC recently announced that Oscar winner Christopher Walken will play the villainous pirate Captain Hook.
“I have wanted to play Peter Pan since I was about three years old, so this is a dream come true,” said Williams, who added, “What could go wrong in a live televised production with simultaneous flying, sword fighting and singing?”
This musical version of “Peter Pan” has a long tradition on NBC.
It opened on Broadway in 1954, starring Mary Martin as the flying boy and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook in a pair of Tony Award-winning performances.
They reprised their Broadway roles in a live telecast of the production that aired on NBC in 1955, revived a year later with a second live telecast — and then, in 1960, with a new, videotaped “Peter Pan” that again starred Martin and Ritchard.
The upcoming “Peter Pan Live!” is a follow-up to the success NBC found with a live version of “The Sound of Music” in 2013 with Carrie Underwood. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who produced “The Sound of Music,” are also working on “Peter Pan Live!”